Christina Aguilera Explains Why She Left ‘The Voice’: ‘It Wasn’t A Comfortable Place For Me To Be’

By Corey Atad.
16 May 2018 1:00 PM

Sara Cwynar for W Magazine

Christina Aguilera is opening up about why she decided to leave “The Voice” after season 10, and no, it wasn’t because of Gwen Stefani.

Speaking to W Magazine, the “Beautiful” singer said she stopped believing in the reality singing competition.

“I signed on to a show where the blind audition element was something interesting, something genuine. After a while, though, you start to see that everyone is good-looking.” Aguilera explained. “It wasn’t a comfortable place for me to be, where I’m just part of a money-making machine.

“When I stop believing in something, then it’s like, What am I doing here? I think I did choose to, no pun intended, take a chair for so long and do something very commercial for my little ones. But at a certain point I felt like I’m not even doing them a service by cheating myself and what I’m here to do. They should be seeing Mommy live her best life.”

Aguilera said she did try to push for changes in the show, especially around the number of women in the judges’ chairs.

“I fought for a long time to get two females in the chairs,” she said. “And, for a long time, I was just told it wasn’t the demographic. But just know that I was a fighter behind the scenes.”

The 37-year-old also talked about Kanye West, who has faced controversy recently for his political comments. The two worked together on songs for her new album Liberation.

“Kanye, you know, he says things,” Aguilera said. “His mind works in mysterious ways,” Aguilera said. “I’ll just say that. I’ve always been a fan of his music…. If anything, he gives with his gut. You can feel it in his beats. It’s genuine. It feels like his truth, even if it’s not going to go over well.”